Anyway, my argument is that any GOP WH and Senate was going to screw us over and up, and Trump really only inflamed racism -- and there's a strong backlash now to that -- and the disastrous COVID response. I have to figure a Pence or any other GOP would have done a poor job but still way better than Trump's hands-off and totally disorganized approach. Except for those two issues, Trump basically governed as a standard GOPer.
I could not disagree with you much more strongly. While Trump could have done more damage than he did, his damage in the Mideast was well beyond what most GOP folks would have done. Ditto his undermining of the EPA. He also far more blatantly ignored feedback on the quality of judges he nominated, giving us a weaker judiciary than we may ever have had.
I think the devastation to our immigration and asylum processes is incalculable. Lives lost, families shattered.
Further, on the racism front, you are right vis-a-vis Black lives, but the rise of antisemitic actions are barely touched by the protests and the reforms have no impact there. The largely national cessation of civil rights actions by the federal government are more extreme than what we saw under GWB or would have with most of those who ran against Trump. Cruz, Rubio, and even Jeb Bush would have all been more reasonable and I am
not suggesting that Cruz would have been reasonable!
I also think you underestimate the long term impact of Trump's railing about the "enemy of the people" and about voter/election fraud, not to mention on our international standing.
But yes, the COVID-19 debacle certainly looks like the worst of what he did, with ripples that will carry forward for decades. (May we be so fortunate as to see ripples for centuries.)